True Believers: Part Twenty-Seven
Cable lifted the plasma rifle from the rack, staring at it for a moment. The memory of how lousy his results had been the last time he'd had some target practice--oath, two weeks ago!--made him scowl.
His vision wasn't back to normal. All these weeks since Sinister had chosen the 'high-powered rifle method' of implanting him with that psionic amplifier to try and recreate with Gina the bond he'd had with Rachel, and he was still suffering the aftereffects. Blurred vision, depth perception slightly off--could be worse, you COULD still be blind.
No, instead he was just totally incapable of hitting the side of a flonqing barn, that was all. Cable bit his lip so hard that he tasted blood. Okay, so maybe the barn bit was exaggerating a little. But the deterioration in his skills had been all too noticeable, the last time he'd tested himself. It made him distinctly edgy. He wasn't in his usual form. He hadn't had time to train--too busy 'relaxing', flonq it all, he thought with an inward snarl. Two weeks wasted. He should have known something like this would happen, that he'd be needed--
"Earth to Cable," Pete said acidly. "You listening to me?"
Cable loaded the rifle and slung it over his shoulder. "No, actually, I was tuning you out, Wisdom," he muttered.
"Very funny--"
"Pete, would you take a hike?" he snapped. He needed to concentrate--he wanted to put off taking the stimulant Josephine had given him as long as he could. Ten hours wasn't all that long. He had to use it wisely. "Go tell Nicholas about your anomaly, or something--" Now there was another problem he really wished he didn't have to deal with, he thought grimly, picking out various bits and pieces of weaponry and stashing them in the pockets and pouches of his uniform. The simple neccessities of survival had made him something of an expert on temporal phenomena, but he couldn't remember anything like what Pete had apparently encountered. Maybe you can't remember because you can't think straight at the moment, you stupid son of a flonq?
"I will," Pete said, eyeing the contents of the armory with a distaste Cable might have found amusing, under different circumstances. "Eventually."
"Why not now?" Cable muttered, pausing for a minute. His head was spinning--or maybe it was the room.
"Because you look a little shaky, Nate," Pete said with a perfectly straight face.
"I don't need a watchdog, Wisdom--"
"Just looking out for you, old man." Pete gave him a sardonic smile.
Cable scowled at him. "I'm not old and senile yet, Wisdom. I don't need protection--" He gave Pete's suit a disgusted look. "Would you put some flonqing body armor on or something? The last time I took you into a situation like this, you got yourself shot--" He immediately squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself to think of something pleasant. A beach. That was good. A nice, quiet beach, somewhere warm--anything to stop that particular memory from reaching up and grabbing him.
"Nate?"
He opened his eyes again, realizing he was trembling in a cold sweat, holding onto the gun rack in front of him as if his life depended on it. "What?" he said in a strained voice.
Pete was standing to his left, keeping a deliberate amount of distance between them. "What?" he repeated, almost incredulously. "You've been standing there like a statue for the last five minutes, that's what." Wisdom scowled. "You going to do that when we're in the middle of things tonight?"
"No," Cable said, as calmly as he could manage. "I'm not." He told himself to calm down. He'd avoided the flashback this time--that was a GOOD thing.
"Do you want to tell me what the bloody hell just happened, then?"
"Not particularly."
Pete looked like he was about to erupt. "Fine," he growled. "I don't know why the hell I bother, sometimes--"
"Don't ask me--"
"You son of a--"
"And if you're going to go practice your profanities, find another guinea pig. I'm not in the mood."
"Either you woke up on the 'let's be an asshole' side of the bed today, Nate," a voice growled from the doorway, "or you're bucking to be going on this mission by yourself." Logan gave him a disgusted look. "You think we're all going to just stand here and take this shit from you?"
Cable turned, his eyes narrowing. "Flonq you, Logan," he grated, grabbing one last gun off the rack for good measure. He started toward the door. Logan didn't move. "Get the hell out of my way."
"Not quite yet," Logan said brusquely. "Been trying to track you down for a while now. I talked to Scott."
"Congragulations. Now gets out of my way--" Logan put up a hand, as if to stop him, and Cable gave him a warning look. "Unless you want to figure out what's on the other side of that wall the hard way," he indicated the opposite wall of the corridor outside, "MOVE!"
"You want to hear what he had to say, or keep blustering?" Cable bit back the instinctive response, and nodded curtly. Logan didn't look any less annoyed as he continued. "Apparently you've got another 'visitor' from the future, back at the mansion."
Cable blinked at him. "Another--"
"Scott says she bears a striking resemblance to the Askani who came back to rescue you when you got infected with the T-O virus. She says she came back to protect you from Hana." Logan shook his head slowly, his mouth tugging upwards in a humorless smile. "You've got the worst damned luck with women, Summers. It run in the family or something?"
Three of them. Three of them? And the Askani who had saved him as an infant? What the hell? "I don't--" He stopped, trying to gather his scrambled composure. "I don't understand this--"
"Join the club," Logan growled.
"Three of them," Pete muttered. "Why the bloody hell wouldn't that show up on the Record?"
Cable reached into his pocket, his hand closing around the hypospray. Calm down, he told himself frantically. But he couldn't quite manage to compose his breathing, no matter how hard he tried. Three of them--oath, he felt like the flonqing walls were moving in on him.
"Protect me from Hana, you said." His voice came out ragged, and he saw Logan's eyes narrow. Measuringly. He tried to put some steel into his voice. "Why?"
"Apparently Hana didn't come back on a mission from Ray, like the other two," Logan said in a curiously neutral voice. "She's taking her orders from Sanctity."
Sancity? Why would that make a difference? But then, Sanctity had been mad, quite mad, hadn't she. Cable closed his eyes, remembering the matriarch of Ebonshire. He'd known her for such a short space of time, only a few days. Yet she'd been such an influence on Aliya's life--her teacher, with all that entailed for an Askani. Part of his 'family' by proxy, no matter the first impressions he'd formed of her all those years ago.
Three different Askani--three different time periods? He knew the fate of this new arrival, the one who'd saved him as an infant. So this had to be a younger version of the same woman. Three different time periods--reacting to each other, or to something I can't even see yet?
He felt blind, trapped. Helpless. Even if he was at a hundred percent, he still couldn't hope to beat a fully trained Askani, if Hana really had hostile intentions. But why wouldn't she have done anything earlier? When she had the chance-- Or had she, and he just didn't know it?
His hand tightened around the hypospray. Turn after twist after knot-- Too many nexus points--everything was spiraling out of control. He didn't have a hope in hell of shaping what he couldn't see.
"One thing at a time," he finally said to Logan and Pete. "We'll take this one thing at a time--deal with new problems once they show up."
"That's not much of a plan, Nate," Logan said harshly.
Cable tried to focus on the telepathic impression he was getting from Logan. "Why do I get the sense you're more worried about this than I am?" he asked somewhat hazily.
Logan straightened, muttering something under his breath. "You forget that Sanctity's been yanking your family around for a while? Taking Scott and Jean to the Victorian period, trying to get Jean to kill Nate Grey--"
Cable stared at Logan for a long moment. There was something else, he was sure of it. He could almost see it--but he didn't dare go probing for it. "True, I guess--" he said hesitantly.
Logan's jaw tightened, as if he'd just come to a decision. "You're right. You worry about making it through this mission--I'll take care of Hana, if she shows up."
Pete snorted. "She's an Askani, you stupid git--any of us non-psis get uppity, we'll wind up with our brains dripping out our ears."
Logan glowered at him and unsheathed his right claws. "She's still flesh and blood."
"No," Cable protested immediately.
"We are talking about the same woman who started messing around with your mind as soon as she showed up, Nate," Logan pointed out acerbically. "Don't you think that means keeping your distance would be a GOOD thing?"
"I mean no, you need to stay out of it," Cable snapped. "You don't think I can take care of her if I have to? But I'm not going to do it on the word of another Askani. Not without understanding what's going on." If that was even POSSIBLE, anymore. He wasn't sure it was. Maybe all he could do was try and muddle through--
"Nate--" Logan growled in frustration.
Cable slid the hypospray out of his pocket, not caring if Logan saw it. "Thanks for the warning," he said, trying not to snarl at Logan. "Now let's go. We've got a 'fortress' to storm."
***
Felt good, to hold her favorite gun. Nice, heavy gun. Would make a good blunt instrument to use on a certain asshole's thick skull--Domino bit her lip, and finished checking her weapon. Time to focus on the mission at hand.
Not that it was much of a mission. Damn it! Domino glared around at the other people working in the command center, wondering if any of them could see how stupid this all was. If these folks flew by the seat of their pants all the time, it was a wonder they'd survived this long.
Go in, make enough of a ruckus to cover the fireball over there-- Domino slanted a sideways look at Melinda where the pyrokinetic was sitting at one of the consoles, Kitty leaning over her shoulder. Get the 'workforce' out, and blow the place.
Oh, what a plan.
"Domino? Are you all right?"
Domino raised an eyebrow as Storm came up beside her. Ororo was not precisely the person she most wanted to talk to at the moment. The X-Man might not be running around acting like the queen bitch of the universe with Jenskot's memories driving her anymore, but she still wasn't Domino's favorite conversational companion. Especially since I'm not so sure it WAS all Jenskot in the first place.
"Just fine," she said in a brittle voice, and changed the subject. "You managing in here all right? Seem to recall that you don't like being underground."
Storm shrugged, a gesture whose grace only irritated Domino. "This place has its own winds," she said with a faint smile, indicating the sprawling command center around them. "I will manage, until we leave again."
Which was soon. Less than an hour, and yet she hadn't seen Nathan since their argument. Not for hours. Son of a bitch--maybe he fell down an elevator shaft or something. A girl could always hope. Domino bit her lip, composing her features mercilessly.
"Are you sure you are all right?"
Why wouldn't the woman just leave her ALONE? If she wanted to talk, she would have initiated conversation herself. Hell, it had been what, just over twenty-four hours since they'd actually come to blows?
Over Nathan. Over that stubborn, self-absorbed, fanatical bastard--made his own damned bed, I should have let him lie in it himself. "Don't you have someone else's life to go pry into?" Domino snapped, glaring at Storm. "It's been what, almost four hours since your last snide comment about Wisdom?"
Storm straightened, the sympathy on her face vanishing. "That is none of your concern," she said, coldly. "And there is no reason to be so hostile, Domino. I was merely inquiring after--"
"You were being nosy, is what you were doing--"
"There some kind of problem?"
Domino's head jerked around, and she stared balefully at Carmen Dunworthy as the other woman came up on her other side, wearing a more armored-up version of the black skinsuits--emergency gear, according to Nicholas--and armed to the teeth. Dunworthy gave her a cool look, and Domino nodded frostily at her fellow ex-mercenary.
"Nothing at all," she grated. "Seen Nathan?"
Dunworthy arched an eyebrow. "Lose track of him?" she inquired mildly.
Bitch. Domino's eyes narrowed. "I'm not his keeper," she said harshly.
"Good for you," Dunworthy said, a delicate smile playing on her lips. "It's a hell of a job. Wouldn't wish it on anyone."
Baiting her--Dunworthy was BAITING her, Dom told herself even as she rose to her feet, her grip on the gun going white-knuckled. "Oh?" she asked, showing her teeth. "You seem to take a perverse sort of delight in it--"
"Ladies." All three of them turned as Nicholas limped in their direction, looking honestly distressed. "I realize we're all under a great deal of pressure at the moment--" he started placatingly. The old man had something of a martyred look on his face, and, even with how furious she was, Domino could find it in her heart to feel sorry for him. Can't be easy, playing 'diplomat' with this crowd--
"Nicholas," Dunworthy said, looking irritated. She was utterly unappreciative of everything Nicholas did to smooth over the tensions she caused, Domino thought irritably. She'd noticed that, even with her mind elsewhere this afternoon. "Don't you have anything--"
The nearest door slid open and Jonas strode in, wearing body armor like Dunworthy's and carrying the biggest damned crossbow Domino had ever seen. She blinked at it, and Jonas gave her an easy grin.
"Primitive, I know, but it works," he said. "Especially since I've got this handy little beta-class accleration power that lets me put one of these--" He tapped one of the bolts, his grin growing, "right through armor plating. Helps that the bolts have explosive tips, of course. Make a real nice mess, they do."
"Jonas?" Dunworthy asked, closing her eyes.
"Yeah, Carmen?"
"Stop bragging."
Jonas chuckled. "Oh, that wasn't bragging, Carmen. I could show you bragging--" He knew exactly what he was doing, Domino thought with a flicker of amusement. Just as much a diplomat as Nicholas. "Like when we played strip pool last Christmas--"
"Jonas," Nicholas said softly, his mouth tugging upwards in a smile as Dunworthy turned crimson.
"Right. Perimeters to check," Jonas said almost mischievously, and waved offhandedly at them as he headed off towards the other side of the command center.
So that was how this place functioned, Domino thought, looking from Jonas to Nicholas and forcing her stubbornly one-track mind to focus on something else for a second. The two of them played off each other, settling down all the ruffled feathers Dunworthy created.
That led her to wonder exactly WHY Dunworthy was calling the shots here--what made her a leader when she didn't seem to be particularly capable of leadership.
Dunworthy had regained her composure with surprising speed. She eyed Domino for a moment longer, and then went over to check on Melinda. Domino followed, uncomfortably aware of Storm trailing along behind her in silence. Maybe she'd been a little too harsh, earlier. Just because she wanted to use Nate as a punching bag didn't mean she had to be a miserable bitch to everyone else. Even Ororo. Not like she really had an excuse anymore.
Damn you, Nate, she thought, avoiding Kitty's questioning look. You've got me chasing my own tail here, you asshole-- She cursed under her breath, remembering Dana's words to her before they'd left the mansion.
He's the only one who can do that to you, isn't he? Make you question yourself, I mean?
Too true. Too damned true--and she hated it. Hated him for being--HIM, for being self-absorbed and selfless at the same time. For going on with the damned mission when he couldn't, because he thought he HAD to--for being in pain, and not letting her help--
"Storm--" she started awkwardly, not turning to look at the other woman where she stood behind her.
"It is of no matter," Ororo said softly. "I cannot imagine the strain you are under at the moment, and it is little enough to forgive."
It was a singularly gracious thing to say, and Domino gave her a grateful look and a faint smile before turning her attention back to what was going on. Dunworthy was asking Melinda something, her voice sharp. Domino forced herself to focus. It was just so hard, to think past that gaping emptiness in her mind where Nathan had been--didn't seem to be getting any easier as the afternoon went on, either.
It hadn't--hurt, when he'd closed down the psi-link, but it had felt wrong, there was no other way to put it. Maybe she was too used to having that sense of his presence, but she felt like part of herself was missing. She wished, more than anything else, that she hadn't walked out of that room. That she'd stayed and argued him into seeing reason--or maybe just beaten some sense into him. But she'd let him drive her away, and she was only now beginning to understand the fear that must have driven him to do that.
With everything that happened, how worried she was about his health and him manifesting the Phoenix-force, she'd almost allowed herself to forget everything else that had happened. Maybe part of her had dismissed his revelations about how terribly the rebellion had ended as not germane to the current situation, but she knew he wouldn't--couldn't have done the same. There was no closing a door like that once it was opened. All that repressed trauma that had come flooding out wouldn't go back quietly to where he'd kept it locked away for so long. The pain and guilt--the terror and shame--all of it couldn't help but affect his behavior in the here and now.
And yet she hadn't kept that in mind. She'd let her own emotions run away with her--and now here she was, stuck, with no way to know what he was feeling. Revisiting the days when he'd been a complete enigma to her. But this wasn't the same--the stakes were too high. She couldn't let things sit like this--
"I don't KNOW!" Melinda said painfully. She was upset, Domino realized--well in control of her expression, but her eyes told the tale. "Black Mountains isn't back on line yet," she said. "I don't understand why not."
"Your brother can take care of himself," Dunworthy said, her voice a little less harsh than it had been. She even laid a hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "Maybe they just had a little more system damage than we did, and can't get their tac computer back up."
"But it's not just the tactical link," Melinda said, cutting Dunworthy off before she could say anything more. "I can't even establish communications with them!"
One of the doors on the other side of the command center slid open, and Domino stiffened, her stomach lurching as she watched Nate walk in, Wisdom and Logan following him. Nate and Logan were both in uniform, while Wisdom was still wearing his usual suit. Jonas, from where he was standing over by the security consoles, took one look at Wisdom and laughed, getting a nasty look in return.
Melinda stood up immediately. "Nathan, there's something wrong at Black Mountains," she said tensely. Dunworthy folded her arms across her chest, clearly a little annoyed, but didn't make any attempt to cut her off. "I can't get in touch with them."
Nathan frowned. "They're not back on line yet?" Domino, studying him, realized almost instantly that there was something wrong--no, different. Both.
The look of utter exhaustion was gone. He was pale, sweating--odd, when it was so cool in here--but seemed perfectly steady on his feet. Alert--he looked TOO damned alert. That gave it away, she thought, seething inwardly in absolute rage. The idiot! If he was that badly off that he had to take something to stay on his feet, he damned well shouldn't be coming, and he knew it! It was like he was deliberately setting out to break every common-sense rule he'd ever harped on for as long as she'd known him.
If looks could kill, Nate would have dropped in his tracks at the one Logan was giving him at the moment. Domino met her old teacher's eyes, and Logan grimaced, the anger on his face turning into helpless frustration. I tried, the look seemed to say. Domino could only imagine what the two of them had said to each other, especially after this business about another Askani. Logan had given her a very terse summary of what Scott had said. She might not understand what it meant, but she doubted it was good.
Askani running around after him--his shields in tatters--having flashbacks and manifesting the Phoenix-force-- If she wasn't so furious with him, she'd be contemplating whisking him away to the Andes or someplace like that, somewhere that was a good day or two's travel from ANYWHERE--and tying him to a bed until he settled down. She certainly had a few choice words for him, when this was over, and the idiot WAS going to listen to her. If she had to SIT on him to make sure, so be it.
Nathan leaned over Melinda's console, frowning. "I don't like this," he muttered, studying the screens. "There's not even a signal bouncing back--why would their systems still be down?"
"Let's not jump to conclusions, here," Dunworthy said, but the annoyed look was gone from her face, and she leaned in to take a closer look at the readout on the screen as well, worrying her lower lip between her teeth. "There's no good reason why Kevin would find himself in any more trouble than the rest of us, with the tactical net going down."
Nathan's head snapped up, and he stared at Dunworthy as if she'd just confessed to having a secret passion for him. Domino saw alarm on his face, and something else, something more dififcult to define. "Carmen," he said slowly. "You said Kevin."
"What?" Dunworthy said irritably, still studying the screen.
"You did, Carmen," Nicholas said slowly. "Kevin, not the station. Did you see something?"
See something--right. Melinda had mentioned that Dunworthy was prescient. But Dunworthy shook her head. "Not that I remember." She actually sounded regretful. "Might have just been a flash--"
Melinda looked like she was going to be sick. "We can't--can we--" It was clearly a plea, but Dunworthy shook her head.
"As soon as we get back," she said with surprising gentleness. "I'll scramble a team, storm or no storm, but we have to carry out the mission first. You know procedure, Mel." Melinda gave a taut nod, and Dunworthy gave Nathan an almost frustrated look.
He seemed suddenly preoccupied, as if he was mulling over something, some puzzle whose pieces he couldn't quite manage to fit together. "Nothing on the Record?"
Dunworthy's expression flattened. "Why would you say that?" she asked, sounding very cautiously. She looked over at Nicholas. "Has there been anything?"
"Not--tied to Black Mountains or Kevin," Nicholas said, looking troubled.
"Not yet, at least," Nathan muttered. Even without the psi-link, Domino knew he was worried. Dunworthy gave him an increasingly skeptical look, and he glowered at her. "You're not the only one with intuition, Carmen."
***
Angharad Rhys snarled, firing off a few shots at the Dark Riders breaking through their makeshift barricades. Gods, I hope the techs get through wiping the core, soon--we can't hold much longer-- "Jelena!" she shouted. "Anything?"
The blue-haired telepath shook her head wildly. "Nothing, I can't sense him anywhere--Hari, we've got to get out of here, there's no TIME!"
There was an explosion of static over her headset. "We're done!" a voice shouted. "Core's empty--we're clearing out!"
Angharad shot one look back over her shoulder, at what was left of her station's security personnel, and swore. "Go!" she shouted. "Find the children, get to the fallback position and get to London as quickly as you can!"
"Hari--"
"GO!"
She wasn't leaving without him. Not watching to see whether or not Jelena followed her orders, Angharad ran the opposite way, deeper into the station. She checked her wrist unit. Eight more minutes before the charges went. She couldn't search half the station in eight minutes, but she could get to Kevin's last location and out the emergency access on that level. If she didn't dally.
Or so she thought, until she got down to that level and ran into the rubble blocking her way. "Kevin!" she shouted over her headset, using her power to move the dirt and rocks. Not enough time, not nearly enough time--"Kev!"
A flash of emerald light threw her backwards, almost off her feet. Angharad staggered, a hand shielding her watering eyes. The flash had half-blinded her, but she could see two figures emerging from the light, each leaning heavily on the other.
One was Kevin. The other was an Askani. Angharad gaped for a full moment before she started forward. "The charges are about to go off, we've got to get out--"
"Kevin!" Tally shrieked from the far end of the hall, the direction Angharad herself had just come. "Hari!" She whizzed down the hall to him, Gina and Jubilation running behind more at a more normal rate. Angharad gaped at the three of them in horror. All three were soot-covered and disheveled. Tally had a bloody scrape on one cheek, Jubilation was limping, and Gina looked dead on her feet, her eyes glowing fitfully and an expression of utter exhaustion on her face.
"You were supposed to LEAVE!" Kevin snarled at all of them, straightening and pulling away from the Askani. "Damn it--"
The Askani didn't bother with accusations or recriminations. "No time. Three, I can teleport," she said, breathing raggedly. "Only three."
Angharad exchanged a glance with Kevin, who glanced at the three girls, and nodded at Miriya. There really wasn't much of a choice, after all.
"No--" Tally started indignantly, but all four of them were gone in a flash.
Her heart a little lighter, Angharad checked her digital again. "Three minutes," she breathed. "Up for it, love?" She could take having her own fate hanging by a thread, as long as she knew the children were out safe. Kevin and she had survived far worse in the past, after all.
Kevin reached out and took her arm. "Last one there buys dinner the next time we're in Cardiff," he said with perfectly aplomb. Had there been time, she would have laughed. Such flair, he had, even in extremis. It was part of the reason she loved him. She moved her arm, taking his hand and squeezing it tightly.
And they ran, Kevin using his displacement powers, her using her control over earth to tear themselves a path through the debris, like a drill, not caring what they blew through on their way out. Doing more damage than the Dark Riders had, but it hardly mattered. The station itself would be gone, momentarily.
They actually made it out with a full fifteen seconds to spare. Kevin tackled her to the ground, shielding her with his body, and she concentrated desperately, pulling a rock shield up out of the earth to protect them.
Black Mountains station exploded, taking every Dark Rider that had been within with it.
When the last debris had fallen and the dust settled, Kevin and Angharad went in search of the surviving station personnel, finding them easily.
What came as something of a shock was that neither the girls nor the Askani who had saved them were with them.
***
Jamie had just curled up on the floor of the holding pen when there was a commotion at the front, near the shield. He sat up, looking warily at Penny, who had raised her head, blinking sleepily at him. Before he could even warn her to be quiet, guards were pushing through the crowd. Six of them.
Coming right at him. And not just the guards, either. Jamie's heart froze in his chest as Vandal casually backhanded a 'worker' who'd moved too slow to the ground.
The Horseman grinned at him fiercely. "Care for a spot of tea, Ripper? Or should I call you Jamie?" He gestured the guards forward, and the two of them pulled Jamie up off the ground. "I would imagine that bitch Dunworthy doesn't like your self-chosen codename, does she?"
They knew.
They KNEW.
"Set the charges," Vandal ordered casually, starting back towards the shield and nodding at two of the guards. "Bring him. He's still useful."
They were out before Vandal's words had spread very far through the crowd. But they did spread, and spread like wildfire. Jamie heard shouting and cursing and helpless, hopeless weeping as they dragged him away. A few shots, as some of the workers with enough fight left rushed the guards, but it sounded like any resistance was quickly quelled, leaving behind only the sounds of panic. Above it all, he thought he could hear Penny crying his name.
***
Melinda was distracted, Nathan could sense it. Her worry for Kevin, her fear for the only family she had left--he sensed it so strongly he could almost taste it.
Dunworthy was troubled. She'd seen something, he was sure of it, but like too many of her precognitive visions, it had happened too quickly for her to retain. She knew it, which made it worse for her, and despite the problems she'd had with Kevin in the past, Nathan knew she was worried about him.
Logan was disgusted with him. It was almost refreshing, how simple and uncomplicated the emotion was.
Pete was uncharacteristically distracted. Tense, worried--he was always a little uptight just before he went into action, but this was too much, Nathan thought distantly.
Jonas, on the other hand, was totally focused. He envied the younger man his ability to do that. It never seemed to fail him, either, no matter what was going on around him. A born soldier--Nathan had known it the first time he'd laid eyes on him.
Ororo, troubled by the storm outside.
Kitty, reviewing the plan in her mind.
Josephine, mentally cataloging the medical supplies on board.
Nathan skipped from mind to mind as Gwen piloted the plane, in full stealth mode, over stormbound London towards the target. This drug Jo had given him was something else, he reflected grimly. She'd said it wouldn't help him with his shields, and it didn't. But his mind was racing under its influence, almost fast enough to keep up with the flow of telepathic input.
Almost. Not quite. And it still hurt like hell. But the pain was more manageable, now that he didn't feel like a stiff breeze would knock him over.
He could do this. He could. Solve the problem, then sleep it off--
Stupid, stubborn son of a bitch-- That was Domino, of course, rage mixed with frantic concern. He closed his eyes, wishing he could block her out.
He wasn't going to think about it. Brooding on a mission like this would get you killed. He'd deal with Dom later. Somehow. He'd make her understand--
A strange, uneasy feeling intruded on his resolution, and Cable's eyes flew open. Where-- It didn't seem to be coming from any particular source--but it was curiously persistent. Something had to be causing it.
#Dayspring?# Shavrin was studying him cautiously from where she sat on the other side of the plane.
So--strange. It wasn't a psi-imprint. #Nothing--it's nothing.# he shot back, knowing he was lying. He tried to focus on it, to pin it down. It remained elusive, though, hovering just at the edges of his perception.
And it stayed there, even when Gwen landed lightly on the roof of a nearby warehouse. Kept nagging at him, even as they scrambled from the plane and made their careful way towards the target, a nondescript warehouse down the street from where they'd landed. It looked much the same as the others surrounding it. On the surface, that was; the centuries-old complex buried beneath was something else entirely.
The rain was still coming down in sheets, and lightning crackled in the night sky above. Cable tried to keep focused, to keep an eye on each member of his team and an 'ear' out for the other group, going around to check for guards on the other side of the warehouse.
Simple infiltration--they aren't expecting us. We've got the advantage of surprise-- Cable winced, hesitating as the uneasy feeling suddenly doubled in strength. Oath, what WAS it? He could almost swear it wasn't coming from outside--
"Nothing here," Jonas's voice whispered in the battle language over their headsets. "Do we move in?"
"Negative!" Cable whispered harshly, instinctively.
Dunworthy half-whirled. "What's the matter with you?" she rasped. The rain had plastered her hair to her head--she looked like a drowned rat, but she was holding her gun in an almost threatening position.
"It's not right--" How to explain it to them, when he couldn't even figure it out himself? But even the thought of continuing into that warehouse, blindly confident, made that feeling of impending danger grow worse.
You can't shape what you can't see.
What you can't see--
Seeing what was to come--
A premonition?
"Nate, you know something we don't?" Logan growled under his breath.
"Usually," Nathan muttered, in a half-assed attempt to lighten the atmosphere, deny his own growing sense of panic. Flonq it all, prescience is Dunworthy's mutant power, not mine-- Unless this wasn't prescience at all, but some flicker of his latent chronal powers--
Domino was watching him, warily yet concerned. "Nate--" she said carefully, moving towards him. "Calm down. What is it?"
"There's something WRONG!" he grated quietly. "I'm telling you--" He gasped, swaying on his feet.
Whatever it was, it was about to happen. He FELT it, felt spacetime shudder around him, wrenching out of place, the distortion growing for a moment before it snapped back, into a new pattern.
He had just felt a nexus point take shape, he realized distantly.
Then, he heard a shriek from Shavrin, and suddenly she was crashing into him, knocking him from his feet. He felt her wrap him in her own shields, a heartbeat before the muted sound of an explosion, somewhere deep beneath their feet--
It was enough, just barely, to prevent his mind from being blown out like a
candle when the psionic deathscream of over two hundred minds shattered the
night.
to be continued...
[FOOTER]